The invention relates in general, to an indicating device and, more particularly, to an indicating arrangement in which one surface area has variable optical properties and another surface area thereof has fixed optical properties.
In electronic devices and electronically controlled machines, there is a growing need for electronic indicators which permit communication between man and machine.
The indicators are used to provide information on operating conditions, the results of computation, errors and the like. Typical applications include computers and copiers, and in the future will be used for example, in motor vehicles or automatic washing machines with an electronic control.
Very frequently numerical displays are required for this purpose and, at a growing rate, other display formats such as electronic "pointers" in the form of straight or arcuate linear scales, as well as, certain symbol formats are needed. To enable even unskilled users to read the indications easily and correctly, further optical characters, standard marks, and fixed numbers are frequently printed on the indicating unit as fixed, unchangeable information.
The term multifunction indication has become typically applied to such a combination of different indication formats on a single display panel.